can't help but recall buffett's phrase "effortless money." bitcoin is exactly that for the vast majority of owners who have never put any of their energy bill toward it. but unlike previous silly wildcat speculation markets which seduced the working classes (the stock market is your ticket to the upper class! it's okay to have two mortgages at once on a salary of 30k/yr! etc), bitcoin by nature is the exclusive province of the gray tribe. and that may make a fundamental difference in how the expansion plays out. still... previously "effortless money" described a sort of stigma or negative, definable phenomenon, which is why buffett said what he did and why he's been right in the '80s, and again in the '90s, and again 10 years ago. question: why is 1 bitcoin worth 7000 dollars?
Because it is a reliable store of value that cannot be confiscated, is not subject to tax and requires no laundering. When your market economy is built on top of a command economy, you want to be able to withdraw from it as quickly and painlessly as possible. Xi Jinping has been effectively enshrined as Mao II. The economic policies of the last ten years are likely to be the economic policies of the next ten years. Bitcoin's market cap is 120 billion. China's GDP is 12 trillion. Bitcoin represents an easy hedge for the .01%.question: why is 1 bitcoin worth 7000 dollars?
From one perspective (perhaps a frustrating one) that's the whole of it. The dollar bills in my pocket seem slightly silly things, and I think they will seem only more so with time. It's not just their backing, but their scarcity that gives them value. They stop at small denominations because their scarcity is largely an equation of ROI. The numbers in my bank account seem a bit crazy to me. I need to trust so much that I have so little power over.
Herd mentality? Trust? Enough people will trade their potential to purchase a jetski for a UPC code because they have a belief that jetskis, like boats, are a hole in the water in which to pour money. Their UPC code, however has demonstrated value, and potentially may increase in value, to so many people, that the risk seems worthwhile. Besides, if you really want to be out on the water, don't want to piss away money each season on batteries, maintenance, and outrageous insurance and registration fees, you'd be better off picking up sailing or windsurfing.